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silverfoxdmt73
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Re: Adapting to a more modern/future game.

Sat 09 Jul 2022, 09:15

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/38 ... -Gear-Book

Something that has some more up to date stuff and things that where newer for ideas.

Thanks for the recommendation.
 
ckosacranoid
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Re: Adapting to a more modern/future game.

Mon 11 Jul 2022, 07:43

Your welcome.
 
SykesFive
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Re: Adapting to a more modern/future game.

Fri 29 Jul 2022, 22:56


I want something that would reflect a similar level of conflict, but maybe one that didn't have tac-nukes and the fall of the Soviet Union as a backdrop, maybe something that happens in the near future (though without wanting to too closely resemble the current conflict in Ukraine. Perhaps, some form of pandemic, but again, I don't want it to lean too heavily on the real life suffering going on currently.
When GDW decided to confront the growing implausibility of the Twilight: 2000 setting ca. 1990, they created the Merc: 2000 setting.
 
CaesarMartin
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Re: Adapting to a more modern/future game.

Sat 30 Jul 2022, 21:08

Interesting topic. I’m going to play in 2027 w things today worked out even worse than in reality. Still in Poland and still the original campaign.

I thought the biggest issue was cell phones, drones and computers. But I am going with that EMPs and hackers have made most unavailable. Coupled with modern world need of multinational materials to make stuff like semi conductors being scarce. It feels like I’ll be able to go w mostly same equipment as in the game and it will feel ok!

Red dot sights might be a thing though.
 
Vcutter
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Re: Adapting to a more modern/future game.

Sat 30 Jul 2022, 21:33

When it comes to cell phones it is not just the emps but also the destroyed infrastructure. In the Twilight world I'm pretty sure the internet as we know it would go down pretty fast. At first it would be the cyberattacks only and ofc that is not much in itself. But add to that the governments placing parts of the net into lockdown, then the destroyed infrastructure, maybe even satellites, cut fiber optic cables, and then the pretty much global loss of power and I don't think that checking your instagram account is going to be easy anymore. And if parts of the infrastructure needed is still up well who is going to be running it? I guess Amazon and Meta and other stop giving out paychecks pretty fast when shit hits the fan.
This of course gives also seeds for adventure: what if there are parts where a small part of the net could be rebuilt, what troves of information could be made available from some servers etc.

Small drones would probably be like "magic items" in the setting. If you find a functional one it would help with recon quite a bit. Then again they eat batteries like crazy and are very fragile.
 
pfarland
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Re: Adapting to a more modern/future game.

Sun 31 Jul 2022, 21:16

While not doing any mechs or power armor, I have adapted the game for a Terminator Judgement day campaign w/ some story modifications (modern day, limited nuke use in the Continental US). The players will be starting out right as the first of "Skynet"'s forces make themselves known.
"Load up, strap in, lock and load, and save the last bullet for yourself."
 
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Ursus Maior
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Re: Adapting to a more modern/future game.

Thu 11 Aug 2022, 14:31

Interesting topic. I’m going to play in 2027 w things today worked out even worse than in reality. Still in Poland and still the original campaign.

I thought the biggest issue was cell phones, drones and computers. But I am going with that EMPs and hackers have made most unavailable. Coupled with modern world need of multinational materials to make stuff like semi conductors being scarce. It feels like I’ll be able to go w mostly same equipment as in the game and it will feel ok!

Red dot sights might be a thing though.
If the balloon goes up in a situation like today's somwhere 2023 oder 2025, then mobile telephones will be gone within 2-3 years. First of all, cell towers and all the infrastructure will be damaged and mus be replaced. Second, our phones rarely live longer than 5 years with battery life substantially diminishing after 2-3 years. The pandemic and current war has already upset global logistics a great deal. Actual medium or even high intensity warfare (which would be a lot more than what's going on in Ukraine these days) would completely disrupt global commerce.

As soon as nuclear weapons enter the scenario, and are used in quantities beyond sporadic battlefield usage, i. e. major ports and urban conglomerates get hit, global commerce will just implode for a decade or even more, especially if nukes are also used beyond Europe, e. g. the Americas, the Pacific Rim, the Indian subcontinent, the Mediterranean and especially around the Gulf and Red Sea.

Using mobile phones in that scenario is extremely difficult, not only for hardware reasons. Lacking broadscale broadband internet means, there will be no central authority on keeping apps up to date. This means interoperability will cease to exist, even if someone has access to a working network. Working networks will likely be limited to cities or maybe small regions. So, unless there is a system admin who also distributes apps that work in his (regional or urban) network, people cannot use apps properly. What good is it to run a messanger app, if no one else has that specific app or it's main server is not accesible to you? Smartphones essentially become dumb PDAs like in the late 1990s or early 2000s.

On the other hand, factions which still have system admins or app developers and can "bring their internet" (e. g. by truck or installing permanent access points) might enjoy a decisive edge over other factions. One would need to find the parts for such an operation first, though. And if that's a priority in post-war Poland is a completely different debate.
liber & infractus
 
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Vader
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Re: Adapting to a more modern/future game.

Thu 11 Aug 2022, 20:04

… our phones rarely live longer than 5 years with battery life substantially diminishing after 2-3 years.

They’ll still work if you can connect them to an external power source — power bank, mains, generator, vehicle, portable solar array, thermoelectric camping stove, string of potatoes…


As an interesting side note though, most Teslas, Polestars, BMW Is, VW IDs, and other pure BEVs using the same Li-based battery technologies as cell phones and laptops do, will at this point be nothing but extremely heavy and cumbersome paperweights.
There will be no way to get a single useful kilometre out of most of them — you’ll need to be extremely lucky to find one with a relatively pristine battery pack.
Getting it to accept a recharge is another question entirely…

HEVs should still work though, albeit with reduced fuel efficiency.


Lacking broadscale broadband internet means, there will be no central authority on keeping apps up to date. This means interoperability will cease to exist…

OTOH, if no-one is updating operating systems or network protocols either, then there will be no need to update apps to maintain compatibility with new releases. Everything should keep working in their current versions, with the established interoperability. Apart from any … infrastructure hardware related issues, obvi.

It’ll be sort of like a 90’s with Internet.
For reference — the 90’s was a time when Mac OS 7 and Windows 3.11 were the current major releases for most of the decade, and everything just worked (at least for Mac users). If you bought Claris Works in 1992, it still worked just fine in 1997.


Thinking a bit forward though — what will edge and fog computing look like in another three years from now? Will we even be all that dependent on massive cloud data centres somewhere on another continent for our apps to work?
The further out into the physical infrastructure the “heavy lifting” gets pushed, the more redundancy the system gets.


What will happen however is that no-one will be updating the anti-virus databases or patching security flaws in the systems, either…
So the question is: will the Chinese and Russian hackers and malware shops cease their operations, too, or … not?


Point being: there are solid, factual arguments to go either way. You can make cell phones and civilian mobile data systems pretty much as much of an ongoing concern as you like.


Advanced multi-domain BMS solutions working on ruggedised versions of 5G infrastructure are of course another matter altogether.

Such systems are not unlikely to be operational with several armed forces on our continent within a few years (now that development of high-end military technology is starting up again), and could have a profound impact on a game placed in or post a 2025+ conflict.
Before you use the word "XENOMORPH" again, you should read this article through:

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/aliens-throwaway-line-confusion
 
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Vader
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Re: Adapting to a more modern/future game.

Tue 16 Aug 2022, 10:36

I ... was wondering if anyone had adapted the rules for use in a modern or slightly more futuristic game setting?
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Contrary to popular belief, weapon systems in use today are often very old.
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Like Baldrick mentioned, the actual weapons used in the modern battlefield are surprisingly the same that they were about 20 years ago.
One reason is that after the cold war military budgets were cut down due to "Soviet Union is now gone, there is no more need for war". Much could be said about that right now but hindsight is always 20-20...
That being said of course there are still technological advancements being made all the time.
However gamewise when it comes to Fria Ligans 4e of Twilight: 2000, you will notice that the granularity of the system is such that the actual make and type and model of the assault rifle does not make much difference. And to be honest even in real life the most modern versions of AK or M4 are not that different from AK 47 or the famous M16. Yes there are differences but if the caliber is same then in TW:2000 terms the stats are pretty much the same. A rifle is a rifle. Main difference would probably be the weight due to more modern materials and design solutions.

For a near-future setting though (2025+ conflict) this may just be changing a bit, though.

It seems that many armies have come to the realisation that the M855/M855A1 cartridge of the AR15, M4, etc is marginally more effective than a pea shooter against contemporary Russian and Chinese body armour like the Ratnik 6B45 (okay, I exaggerate ... a little).

Howsoever, this has prompted e.g. the US to look into introducing a new standard calibre of 6.8x51mm (in an "XM5" version of the SIG MCX being evaluated to replace the M4, and a new "XM250" LMG to replace the M249), and the Swedish and Finnish armed forces to look at jointly procuring an all-new assault rifle, chambered for a souped-up version of the 7.62x51mm NATO cartridge. There are mutterings of similar plans in other parts of the EU as well.
We'll see where the US programme goes, but it seems fairly certain at present that the Fenno-Swedish programme is going to happen.

Military technology has been at pretty close to a standstill in the West for the last three decades; not so in the East. And now ... the West is realising we're in a race to catch up.
The — as baldrick0712 notes, largely antiquated — hardware that was "good enough" in the GWOT of the first part of this century will most probably no longer suffice in a projected full-scale European war of just a few years into the future.
Before you use the word "XENOMORPH" again, you should read this article through:

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/aliens-throwaway-line-confusion
 
Vcutter
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Re: Adapting to a more modern/future game.

Tue 16 Aug 2022, 13:25

All true. Then again keep in mind that the US army has tried to replace it's trusty warhorse several times: ACR -program late eighties, OICW program in the nineties, XM-8 in 2000 something...
We shall see how SIG SPEAR with it's FURYround will fare. I guess the question is from large scale military viewpoint: Is a rifle that is 10% better reason enough to invest billions of dollars into it? On the other hand, the update has to happen at some point and current world events might give it the boost it needs.
The Finnish-Swedish co-op might happen indeed, then again the Finnish army just updated the RK62 to 3 different versions and the caliber is pretty good still against modern body armour when compared to 5.56. I have been able to fire the M3 and it is indeed an improvement but it is still the "same" gun. But now that NATO is happening it would make sense for Finns and Swedes to have guns of same caliber... and 5.56 won't cut due to the facts you mentioned.

Ahh but to put all this into game terms: as technology advances the effectiviness of body armour increases and so does the effectiviness of rounds fired from different guns. When you take the granularity of TW4e into account, an assault rifle probably should still have the stats of "Assault rifle", M4 or AK, with probably less weight. If in you campaign tech has advanced a bit more maybe the M4's are the jury rigged "zip guns" of the future?

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